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  • Review: Panaracer Gravel King Slick Tyres 700c x 32mm

    Review: Panaracer Gravel King Slick Tyres 700c x 32mm

    The most significant change I have made to my Mercian so far is the tyres. Up until this year, I’d been pretty keen on the very puncture-resistant Schwalbe Marathon tyres and had them on my Kona Sutra and on the Mercian. However, having subscribed to Jan Heine’s Bicycle Quarterly, I was getting bombarded by sales […]

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    Matt Martin

    December 16, 2022
    Gear Review, Modifications, Tyres
    Gravel King, Gravel King Slick, Mercian King of Mercia, Panaracer
  • Ride Report: Anglesey Bivvy Weekender

    Ride Report: Anglesey Bivvy Weekender

    I forgot to mention it here but back in September I went on another bivvy trip with the Grass Up The Middle gang and I wrote up a ride report. You can find it on their site here.

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    Matt Martin

    November 6, 2022
    Blog, Ride Report
    Anglesey, Grass Up The Middle, GUTM, Ynys Mon
  • Pub grub, a triple bike and Aussie punk

    Pub grub, a triple bike and Aussie punk

    I stumbled across this band, The Chats, the other day. Their ode to the smoke break, “Smoko”, went viral 4 years ago and so I am typically late to the party. I was working my way through their youtube channel and came across this great video for their track Pub Feed – it’s got mullets, […]

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    Matt Martin

    August 26, 2022
    Blog, Culture
    Punk, The Chats, Triple Bicycle
  • Mid Year Review

    Mid Year Review

    I know it’s a cliché but I really cannot believe how fast this year has flown by. I’m conscious of the fact that I haven’t really written anything since I went on the Grass Up The Middle Bivvy Weekend in March. I had intended to remedy this by writing up a mid-year review around the […]

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    Matt Martin

    July 21, 2022
    Blog, Goals
    Audax
  • Podcast: For your listening pleasure

    Podcast: For your listening pleasure

    I came across the Bikepacking Buds podcast the other day and since it made me all warm and fuzzy inside, I thought I would share it with you. The blurb reads: “a community led cycling podcast sharing inspiring stoies of bikepackers across the UK”. There’s four episodes to get stuck into, that cover topics such […]

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    Matt Martin

    June 22, 2022
    Blog, Culture
    Inclusivity, Podcast
  • The Way Home: GUTM Spring Forward Bivvy Weekend Part Two

    The Way Home: GUTM Spring Forward Bivvy Weekend Part Two

    This is Part 2 of my ride report from the recent Grass Up The Middle Spring Forward Bivvy Weekend. For Part 1, click here. It was a clear morning when I woke from my slumber, I slept as well as I expected – not as good as I do in a real bed, but not […]

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    Matt Martin

    April 5, 2022
    Blog, Ride Report
    Grass Up The Middle, GUTM, NCN71
  • My first overnight adventure!

    My first overnight adventure!

    I finally got my act in order and went on an adventure, with many thanks to Grass Up The Middle for organising their Spring Forward Bivvy Weekend event. We cycled from Sale to Macclesfield forest and spent a night under the stars in our bivy bags. I wrote up an article about it when I […]

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    Matt Martin

    April 4, 2022
    Blog, Ride Report
  • On Setting Goals

    On Setting Goals

    I didn’t really set any goals or resolutions at the start of this year. I kind of just let last year’s resolutions roll over, and the only bike related one was a rather non-committal nudge to ‘ride more’. Whilst that had worked to some degree, the idea of using more specific challenges and goals as […]

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    Matt Martin

    March 11, 2022
    Blog, Goals
    Goals, Resolutions
  • Lessons from Midnite Bicycle League

    Lessons from Midnite Bicycle League

    Wow, things have been really busy lately. Work has been unusually demanding for this early in the year. After Christmas, I opened up a real can of worms by finally starting work on fixing up the upstairs of our house. I expected it to be bad (that’s probably the reason I’d been putting it off […]

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    Matt Martin

    March 5, 2022
    Blog, Ride Report
    Mercian King of Mercia, Midnite Bicycle League, Shawn Granton
  • Mercian: Initial Thoughts

    Mercian: Initial Thoughts

    I don’t really know what possessed me to want another bike – the Kona Sutra and the Wayfarer were already covering all of my needs – but you know how it is. I’d been toying with the idea of a hand built English touring bike for a while, since before the Sutra came along to […]

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    Matt Martin

    January 23, 2022
    Bike, Modifications
    English Touring Bike, Mercian King of Mercia
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